494 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
of drift marking the highest flow of the tide. As before men- 
tioned, a great number of species were to be seen in this drift, 
The great size of the brown seaweeds made that colour dominate 
the whole. Notably were to be seen the great leathern fronds of 
Durvillea, which had been so firmly fastened to the rocks that 
the schizoids were still firmly clasped around small masses of stone. 
Different species of Sargassum and Cystophora were very 
common ; Leklonia, Carpomitra, and Sporochnus were mixed up 
with the huge fronds of Macrocystis, and the necklace-like bladders 
of Hormosire. This Macr ocystis is the same species that Darwin 
gives such a vivid description of in his “ Voyage of the Beagle.” 
He mentions that many shipwrecks have been averted by their 
presence on the surface of the sea indicating hidden shoals. He 
speaks of them as completely covering all the rocks that are partly 
or wholly submerged. In Harvey’s “Phy. Australis,” vol. iv, Jfa- 
crocystis pyrifera is thus described: ‘The cord-like stems, when 
the plant grows in deep water, have been estimated variously at 
500 to 1,500 feet. At whatever depth the plants vegetate the stem 
rises at a considerable divergence from the perpendicular to the 
surface, where their leaves are buoyed up by their vesicles.” It 
is further stated that “it is only the terminal leaf which must be 
regarded as a modification of a bud which develops new leaves by 
splitting ; the lateral leaves once formed remain unchanged till 
they decay.” Thus we remark that this is undoubtedly the 
longest plant in the world. But returning to our sea-drift, the 
flat olive-green fronds of Holiseris were to be seen in every heap. 
The red seaweeds were also well represented. A few broken 
specimens of the loveliest of all seaweeds, Claudea elegans, could 
be found occasionally. 
As Claudea elegans, as far as is known, flourishes only in the 
estuary of the Tamar, on the opposite coast of Tasmania, it shows 
that the current which, coming from the west, bore these specimens 
to Ocean Grove, must at one time have passed the mouth of the 
Tamar. Thelargerspecies of Griffithsia ceramium, Halymena rhody- 
menia, &e., might be seen in hundreds, while the smaller species of 
Callithamnion, Polysiphonia, dc., might be obtained on the larger 
types of seaweed. The Chlorophycee were also well represented, 
Caulerpas, Codium, Vaucherias, and Ulvas, with their bright 
green fronds, glistened on every side. Amongst the light- coloured 
or yellowish-red species were an immense number of Gelidium. 
In the Melbourne Botanic Museum one of these Gelzdiwms was 
marked as edible, and Shirley Hibberd, in his work entitled ‘‘The 
Sea-weed Collector, ” says that the birds-nests weed (Gelidium) 
of China and Japan i is collected by swallows for the construction 
of their nests.” It is well known that these nests are of great com- 
mercial value, and it would be well worth experimenting on some 
of these species of seaweed to seeif it could not be utilised in some 
